How Rotten Tomatoes became the scapegoat for frustrated ‘Suicide Squad’ fans

The critics are wrong about “Suicide Squad,” according to an online eruption from the DC Universe’s fandom. The small but loud revolt against critical opinion demanded the closure of Rotten Tomatoes, where “Suicide Squad’s” aggregate rating among critics is hovering at about 30 percent. The negative reviews are “unjust,” the fan uprising said. The film has not yet opened in theaters.

It’s an odd target for a campaign that aims to democratize the critical analysis of films, since that’s basically what Rotten Tomatoes was founded to do in the first place. Rotten Tomatoes is a website that aggregates and evaluates the reviews of critics who work for publications across the globe. Their film ratings — expressed as a percentage — are meant to provide an overall look at how the film is faring in the opinions of those critics. And yet, for those signing the Change.org petition demanding Rotten Tomatoes’s closure, the site was the easiest target to pick as a stand-in for the entire idea of a critic’s value.